Coniferous trees such as black spruce, white spruce, red spruce, grey pine, balsam fir and larch, because of their small size, are traditionally known to produce low grade quality lumber products such as wood chips or 1".times.3", 1".times.4" and 1".times.6" boards. Uses of those coniferous trees for structural purposes are very limited because of their inherent weakness. Presently, the demand for those low-grade quality products is not as high as the demand for high-grade quality and as can be easily understood, the latter is a lot more profitable for producers. Therefore, there is presently a need for a process that will permit new, interesting and profitable uses for those coniferous trees.
Known in prior art, there is U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,760 in the name of Koch. This document describes a process for making a laminated wood product utilizing modulus of elasticity measurement. An object of this process is the making of high strength laminates from boltwood trees which was then considered a nonstructural material because of its small size and its relatively high proportions of juvenile wood. This document teaches to arrange into a laminated structure the laminae that have the greatest deflection in the center of the structure and those with progressively less deflection located away from the center. As can be easily understood, this process is time-consuming and is not adapted to industrial production of wood board.
Also known in prior art, there is U.S. Pat. No. 3,961,654 in the name of Hasenwinkle, that describes a process for making a composite lumber product from a generally cylindrical log. The log is cut radially into a plurality of sector-shaped pieces. These pieces are rejoined two by two, by bonding them along opposed radial faces to form a parallelogram or a rectangle. A plurality of those parallelograms or rectangles are edge-bonded together into wider planar shapes. An object of the invention described therein is to manufacture composite lumber products that have improved quality.
Other examples of prior art related to the art of wood are described in the following references:
______________________________________ 3,580,760 May 25, 1971 P. Koch 3,961,654 June 8, 1976 Hasenwinkle 2,589,316 March 18, 1952 A. M. Young 4,934,228 June 19, 1990 Bolton et al. 5,059,472 Oct. 22, 1991 Le Bell et al. 5,135,597 Aug. 4, 1992 Barker 5,002,105 Mar. 26, 1991 Bodig 1,778,333 Oct. 14, 1930 H. Neumann 2,942,635 June 28, 1960 R. C. Horne 5,648,027 Jul. 15, 1997 Tajiri et al. 4,496,421 Jan. 29, 1985 Byars et al. 3,908,725 Sept. 30, 1975 Koch ______________________________________
An object of the present invention is to propose a process for making a wood board that satisfies the above-mentioned needs. More particularly, an object of the present invention is to propose a process for making a wood board from coniferous trees, the board produced thereby showing excellent mechanical characteristics.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process for making a high strength structural wood board from coniferous trees which are traditionally considered as nonstructural wood.